Vail employees taking owed pay issue to court in South Lake Tahoe

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - A labor lawsuit against Vail Resorts will be heard in El Dorado County Superior Court Department 4 on Friday, June 17 at 1:30 p.m. The lawsuit alleges labor violations by the company between 2014 and 2021, affecting a reported 101,839 employees at multiple Vail locations in ten states.

A settlement was expected in the class-action lawsuit which alleges Vail asked staff to perform extra duties when off the clock, thus not being paid for work as required by labor laws. Many of the affected staff object to the settlement and did not choose to be part of the offered $95 per person and opted out of the class action.

During the July 17 court date, a large number of Vail employees are expected even though a ruling on the settlement has been moved to August according to a website set up by a Vail employee for the case, https://www.resortsettlementoptout.com/. According to the website, 20,413 of 101,839 class members never received a settlement package in the mail, 1,517 members of the class opted out, and 9,498 of our current and former colleagues agreed to the settlement.

The $95 settlement offer to one local Vail employee isn't close to the $2,000 they say they are owed and is the reason they opted out of the class action.

The cases with Heavenly, Kirkwood and Northstar were combined, then moved to the Federal Court since labor law, pushed back to the State level and current in the El Dorado County Superior Court. The total alleged damages are $108M, and $13.1M is being offered to the employees, the website alleges. Colorado employees are in a separate case.